Jason's 40 breeder SPS tank build and log

[JAustin]

Hello everyone, I’m putting together a 40 breeder reef that will be SPS dominated. I've had many tanks in the past 9 years and recently downsized from a 120 to a 29g biocube. Well, I can't handle the tight spaces of a biocube and decided to compromise with a 40 breeder.

Tank will be a standard 40 breeder (actually holds 44 gallons), my custom 20g acrylic sump I built for my Biocube. I thought about getting a 20 long but i would like the room for the calcium reactor and other equipment.

The equipment in my signature will all be used. In the future I would like to find a 36" fixture and retro a bunch of leds in there, but for now the 24" 250mh and t5s will work.

I'm in the process of building the stand now, and by the looks of it I could park a C-130 cargo aircraft on it. The paneling will be oak ply and all the trimming will be oak. The stain will more than likely be very dark like cherry.

[bikeboss11]

Your stand looks real strong.... Can't wait to see the finished product

[maroonman]

I too am in the process of building a 40 Breeder reef... Can you tell mw how High you decided to go with your stand? Looks bullet proof. Taggin along for this one

[JAustin]

The stand is 42" tall. I love tall tanks you don't have to break your back to see but you can still see the top of the SPS while standing. At that height I can still reach into the tank and touch the bottome on my tippy toes.

[JAustin]

Got a bit more done today. Got the paneling put on and the oak crown molding cut. I would like to state, crown molding is not easy to cut. I must have made the wrong angle cut 5 or 6 times. To those that are in the home building profession, hats off too ya.

Tonight I'll get the front opening where the doors are going to go cut open and the top ply cut and nailed as well as the bottom shelf. Then the trim and and a trip to HD to see what I'm going to use for the bottom trim piece. I'm thinking base board.

Should have stain in it in a few days. Decided on dark mohogoney.

[JAustin]

This the back



Front with the top piece. Still needs to be cut on one side and the opening to the stand needs to be cut and doors installed.



Here is what the crown molding will look like on top.



More to come tomorrow.

[maroonman]

Im diggin the stand.
I will be starting on mine this week.
So will that fit a 20Long sump under the 40?

[consumed corals]

looking good.
the trick with crown is you gotta cut it upside down and backwards!
I think your stand would hold a kc130 fully loaded...lol

[JAustin]

Yes a 20l will fit.

Crown molding and I just don't get along. Thank god I got it figured out. To do anymore would have made me stressed. I know the stand is so overkill and simply 3/4 ply would hold a 280g, but 2x4s are so darn easy to work with. Plus I don't have access to a table saw.

[chrischin29g]

I'm about go start a 40b also wanted to do a 40dt and 40 sump but think I might just use a 20L so save some space... How do you think your skimmer will do on this new system?

[JAustin]

It will do fine. I don't plan on increasing the bio load until I pick up the larger model. The SC is only $120.

[JAustin]

Not much to add today. I haven't had the time to finish the stand. Hopefully I can get some time this weekend.

[JAustin]

Here is the progress I made over the weekend on the stand...





I also ordered an internal overflow since i'm going to be drilling the bottom glass for drain and return.

[JAustin]

Here are the two stains I have laying around. I will be going with the lighter red one. It closely matches my dining room table chairs and main table body. It has a semi gloss finish that looks real nice. I’m sure I’ll wind up using a couple coats of the stuff to really get it set in there. I’ll be ordering the doors soon. There is a website that sells cabinets and supplies that can build and ship the doors for a great price. I have never had luck with making doors for past fish tank stands. They always come out a tad bit crooked and my wife never leaves me alone about it .



On a side note: My overflow is ordered and so are my drilling, bulk head, and lock line supplies from glass holes.com. I have also learned that I will be building a hood for the tank. My wife does not like to smell the water when she walks by and has told me I must build a hood. I laughed at that and was happy about her decision. I think I’m going to wind up with a T-5/LED combo for my lighting. I think I’ll do two blue plus and one purple plus T-5, with two 36” strips of RB and CW LEDs. Should be interesting to see what that looks like.

I also have two PFO 250w HQI fixtures I would like to run over the tank but I’m worried about heat. I don’t want to have a million fans over the tank and sump and I don’t want a chiller. I’ve ran two 400 MH over a 120g in the past and had great luck with cooling it with two fans that weren’t too loud. If I do this with the 500W of MH, I’ll mount the pendants on top of the hood; this will allow the pendants to vent heat outside the hood. I can use fans to move the heat out of the hood. I guess I’ll have to experiment with it. Two 14K phoenix bulbs would give me great par over the entire tank and seeing it will be a SPS dominated tank this would work out great.

[JAustin]

Need to sand paint and stain now.

[JAustin]

Picked up my substrate today. It's going to be a blend of two types. I'm going to seed the sand with tank water until I get the tank ready.





Got my glass holes order in and some ARM media for the CaRx.

[S14Swap240sx]

Tagging along here.. looking forward to doing a similar build..

i was thinking more of an oversizes stand, like 4ft long with a title top.

just need the dumb 40g breeders to go on sale already!

[[email protected]]

Originally Posted by JAustin

There is a website that sells cabinets and supplies that can build and ship the doors for a great price. I have never had luck with making doors for past fish tank stands. They always come out a tad bit crooked and my wife never leaves me alone about it.

I got my last set through Rockler, but found I can do better designing to fit a set of cabinet doors off the shelf from Home Depot. Matching drawer fronts as well.

Jeff

[JAustin]

I like the oversized idea. It gives you more room to rest your arms on when looking at the tank an it handy when your performing maintenance.

[cody6766]

Looks good so far. I kind of miss my old 40br. The shape is near perfect for a tank under a 120. Yourbiocube is great, so I'm sure this will be too

[nine8taco]

Stand looks good keep the good work I'll be building one soon good to see the construction in progress

[JAustin]

Quick update, I’ve been cleaning and seeding the sand for a week now. I’ve been taking the 5-10 gallons I do a water change with and using that for my sand. I keep churning the sand by hand and letting a BRS media reactor stuffed with paper towels filter out all the fine particles. It’s working like a champ and only costing me a couple dollars in paper towels for the mechanical filtration.

I think this is going to work out great to have new clean live sand for the new tank. I’ve made a few trips to HD for plumbing parts to build my stand pipes in the overflow. I am still awaiting my internal overflow to arrive; it’s a 3 sided overflow with CNC teeth I bought from ebay. I haven’t decided where I’m going to drill the bottom and place the overflow yet. It’s going to be centered or off center to the right or left….still debating. If I place it off center I can have the drain shoot straight down with no bends (I like the simplicity of this idea).

Still waiting for the $1 per gallon sale to kick off at Petco. The manager told me there will be new ads ran on the 20th of this month so we shall see what turns up. If the sale doesn’t start soon I’m just going to spend the $120 on a new tank. You can be sure I’ll pick up a spare when the sale does kick off.

[JAustin]

Internal overflow came in yesterday. It's built very well and I'm impressed.




I've got mangroves arriving today! Woohoo. Can't wait to grow these bad boys in my fuge.

[ReefAdventure]

I'm in the process of building a stand for my 40B. Your's is looking good. Can't wait to see the finished product! What do you plan on stocking your tank with?

[JAustin]

Well besides the corals from my 29G BC, I have two unidentified clown fish (they look like skunk but are grey with a single white bar by their heads), pistol shrimp and red and white goby pair, and manderin goby.

Once the breeder is set up I'm looking to add three bartlets anthias, or ignitus anthias, and one mystery wrasse.